updated 09:55 am EST, Tue January 20, 2009

MS to Curb Building Plans

Microsoft will shave at least some costs during the economic downturn by scaling back its building plans, according to both the company and slips by internal sources to Seattle's Post-Intelligencer. The company is known to have delayed construction both at its own Redmond, Washington headquarters as well as at space bought from Nintendo until 2013 and 2014 respectively; it also plans to avoid renewing multiple non-essential leases, though some of these were already slated to drop before the financial crash.

A staff level freeze is factored into the motivations behind the curbed plans for its offices.

The combined efforts are said in a leaked internal presentation to save Microsoft as much as $82 million for the rest of the company's fiscal year, which ends in June. The following year is estimated to save as much as $525 million.

It's unknown whether the reduced footprint will account for the majority of Microsoft's cutbacks, though the plans reduce the likelihood of rumored job cuts. Microsoft has historically tried to avoid significant layoffs whenever possible and has resorted to other steps in the past to reduce its financial overhead.